Education | Laboratory Personnel | General Research Interest | Selected Research Projects
Research and Clinical Interests | Major Specialized Equipment Items Available | Selected Publications

Carl A. Kirker-Head
Associate Professor
Department of Clinical Sciences
General Large Animal Surgery
Marilyn M. Simpson Professor
Director, Orthopedic Research Laboratory
Phone: 508-839-7926
Fax: 508-839-7922
Email: carl.kirker-head@tufts.edu

Education
Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine (Vet MB) - University of Cambridge, England - 1983
Master of Arts (MA) - University of Cambridge, England - 1984

Board Certification
American College of Veterinary Surgeons
European College of Veterinary Surgeons

Investigative Interests

  • Bone and cartilage growth, remodeling, repair, and grafting
  • Bone inductive and mitotic proteins
  • Tissue regeneration
  • Surgical and other musculo-skeletal disease models
  • Musculoskeletal biomechanics
  • Ligament and tendon physiology and response to injury
  • Orthopedic device development
  • Per-cutaneous treatment of cardiac disease; animal models of cardiac disease
  • Intervential cardiology

Clinical Interests

  • Equine athletic injury, including non-adaptive bone disease and repetitive motion injury
  • Orthopedic surgery, particularly internal fixation and arthroscopy
  • Equine hoof form and function, including therapeutic farriery and laminitis
  • The farrier-veterinarian relationship
  • Clinical pharmaceuticals

On-Going Studies

  • High-speed treadmill characterization of equine limb motion in the normal and fatigued state. HOSSO, Inc. Determining what abnormal limb motion occurs with onset of muscle fatigue.
  • "Soft tissue reconstruction using Silk Biomaterials". Department of Defense/Army/Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine. Seeking ways of improving soft tissue regeneration following injury.
  • "XROMM characterization of equine lower limb motion". AERI. Using a novel imaging technology to characterize lower limb motion to within 0.08 mm.
  • "Bone Regeneration Via Silk Biomaterials" National Institutes of Health funded. Assessment of natural silk as facilitator of new bone formation and delivery vehicle for bone inducing proteins and bone forming stem cells

 

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Specialized Capabilities or Interests

  • Equine musculoskeletal surgery
  • Equine general surgery
  • Arthroscopic surgery
  • Implantology
  • Medical device and drug testing
  • Disease and injury models
  • Advanced imaging modalities, including MRI, CT, DXA, nuclear medicine, XROMM, high-speed video

Major Specialized Equipment Items Available

Instron Model 8511 servohydraulic materials testing device; a Toshiba Aquillon 16 slice CT; a Siemens Symphony 1.5 Tesla MRI; an Hologic QDR4500 DXA scanner; a digital high- resolution gamma camera (IS2 NuCamma Enhanced Technologies, Dallas/Fort Worth, TX); digitized fluoroscopy (Shimadzu RS-110 Remote radiology/fluoroscopy room with UD150L 630MA 50 KW); and a Kistler model Z4852 piezoelectric quartz crystal force plate Gait Analysis System. Video-endoscopy, a high speed treadmill, comprehensive surgical facilities, a media center, and clinical pathology and pathology facilities complement the environment.

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Selected Publications

  1. Jenner F,Kirker-Head CA. Core decompression of the Equine Navicular Bone – an in vivo study on healthy horses. Vet Surg 2011; 40:151-62.

  2. Jenner, F, Kirker-Head CA. Core decompression of the Equine Navicular Bone – an in vitro biomechanical study. Vet Surg 2011; 40:163-70.

  3. Kirker-Head CA, Schwoegler M. “A characterization of Farrier Services at Private Equine Surgical Hospitals.” Equine Veterinary Education 2010; 22:513–518.

  4. Kirker-Head CA, Krane G. “A characterization of Farrier Services at United States Veterinary Teaching Hospitals”. Equine Veterinary Education 2010; 22:519–525.

  5. Abuja GA, García-López JM, Doran R, Kirker-Head CA. Pararectal cystotomy for urolith removal in nine horses. Vet Surg 2010; 39:654-9.

  6. Evans CH, Liu FJ, Glatt P, Hoyland JA, Kirker-Head CA, Walsh A, Betz O, Wells W, Betz V, Porter RM, Saad FA, Gerstenfeld LC, Einhorn TA, Harris MB, and Vrahas MS. Use of genetically modified muscle and fat grafts to repair defects in bone and cartilage. Europe Cell Materials 2009; 18:96-111.

  7. Kleine L, Solano M, Rusckowski M, Hunt K, Johnson K, Kirker-Head CA. MA, Evaluation of 99mTechnitium-EDTA-Biotin as a Soft Tissue Imaging Agent in Horses. Am J Vet Res 2008; 69:639-46.

  8. Wang Y, Rudym DD, Walsh A, Abrahamsen L, Kim HJ, Kim JS, Kirker-Head CA, Kaplan, DL. In vivo degradation of three dimensional silk fibroin scaffolds. Biomaterials 2008; 29:3415-3428.

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